'What's the protocol for talking to the richest man in the world? I had no idea': Meet the Australian university lecturer whose big idea attracted the support of BILL GATES and is leading to a global history education revolution

David Christian began teaching his experimental Big History course at Macquarie University in Sydney's north-west 25 years ago

The course teaches 'the history of humanity' in a non-linear format by exploring elements of biology, geology and history

It discusses the universe, the big bang, the origins of life, how humanity was influenced by religion and agriculture, and even the current climate over eight separate chapters on a free-to access website

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was won over after watching the lectures and poured $10 million dollars into the project to launch it in high schools

Over 100 schools in Australia and 300 in the US have taken on the course since it was launched three years ago

A numbers of schools in the Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, South Korea and England have also begun teaching the course

David Christian was teaching at a local Australian university when he came up with a revolutionary new way to teach history that has spread like wildfire through classrooms across the world.

The ambitious Russian and Soviet history teacher, from Macquarie University in Sydney's north-west, began teaching a non-linear history of humanity, titled the Big History Project, that was soon in such high demand that it took him overseas and won over the curiosity of former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

'I always had this feeling that in a world with nuclear weapons, and in which many of the problems are global rather than local, we need to not be teaching the history of Russians or Australians or Americans, but the history of humanity - and we seem not to do that,' Mr Christian told Daily Mail Australia.

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David Christian (left) began teaching the Big History course at Macquarie University in Sydney's north-west before it caught the attention of former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates (right)

'I realised that to do that you would have to go back to the Paleolithic verse, and then I thought to do that you really have to look at how humans evolved and to do that you have to talk about biology and to do that properly you'd have to talk about geology – how was this planet formed and why did life form and evolve on this planet.

'So that pushed me back and back and back until eventually I found myself thinking "I wonder if you could teach a sort of history course that did the whole damn thing".'

Mr Christian proposed the idea to his colleagues at Macquarie University and found a number of enthusiastic lecturers who were interested in helping him roll-out the class.

After years of practice they have developed a coherent course that Mr Christian describes as teaching 'the history of everything'.

The course teaches 'the history of humanity' in a non-linear format by exploring elements of biology, geology and history. It discusses the universe, the big bang, the origins of life, how humanity was influenced by religion and agriculture, and even the current climate

From the Big Bang, our solar system and the science behind how life developed, right through to how aspects of human life were influenced by religion and agriculture, and then of course the current climate and human consumption – The Big History Project is a lesson on how everything came to be and where it could possibly take us.

If you think of the Christian tradition or you think of Indigenous traditions – all of them contain origin stories which try to give students a complete sense of how everything fits together, and I realised we don't do that in modern education

'Eventually I realised that this is something that all educational traditions in the past have attempted,' Mr Christian said.

'If you think of the Christian tradition or you think of Indigenous traditions – all of them contain origin stories which try to give students a complete sense of how everything fits together and I realised we don't do that in modern education and I think that's a real mistake.

'So Big History tries to do that – it tries to do what origin stories do but by using the information of modern science.'

The revolutionary idea soon caught the attention of former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

Mr Christian was invited to record a series of 48 half hour lectures on the Big History for the Teaching Company while he was working at San Diego State University.

'I always had this feeling that in a world with nuclear weapons, and in which many of the problems are global rather than local, we need to not be teaching the history of Russians or Australians or Americans, but the history of humanity - and we seem not to do that,' Mr Christian said

Gates, who was working his way through the Teaching Company's catalogue, soon reached Mr Christian's lectures and was instantly won over.

'I got a phone call when I was at San Diego State University from his office and they basically said "Mr Gates is a great fan of your work, he likes the idea of Big History" and they said he's coming down to San Diego and he'd like to talk to you,' Mr Christian said.

Bill Gates was won over by the course and spontaneously arranged a meeting with Mr Christian, saying that he wanted to support the building of a free online website which contained a syllabus of Big History for high schools

'What's the protocol for talking to the richest man in the world? I had no idea. But He was absolutely charming.

'I was ushered into a room and it was just him and me talking for about two hours and he's a real enthusiast. He was really enthusiastic about this and so it was just an enjoyable conversation.

'He said he would like to support the building of a free online website which contained a syllabus of Big History for high schools, so that's what we are doing.'

Since their initial meeting, Gates has poured over $10 million into the Big History Project, the majority of which has been used to build the website, which is free to access by anyone, and all of its components.

Some of the money has also been offered to schools to 'help buy out the teacher's time' in order to enable them to learn and prepare for the course.

'He [Gates] had some very good ideas about how we should begin the project. For example, he argued that it was best to work through individual schools rather than educational bureaucracies – let schools experiment with it so that we can really develop it before we work through the educational bureaucracies,' Mr Christian explained.

In the three and a half years since the project was launched, it has grown from eight pilot classes in the US and Australia into a globally adopted method of teaching.

The website and all its resources is free to access by anyone online. It educates its audience through eight different chapters that include videos, cartoons and a platform for teachers to access resources and share ideas about how to teach the course

'There are about 100 schools in Australia which are formally doing it, but I've been told there could be as many as 500 that are using some of the material informally,' Mr Christian said.

'There are about 300 schools in the US at the moment but there are also smaller numbers of schools in the Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, about five in South Korea and one in England - maybe more.

'Eventually, our hope is that this will go international and I'd like to see it be translated into other languages.'

Big History has gone global in the last three and half years. Over 100 schools in Australia and 300 in the US have taken on the course as well as a numbers of schools in the Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, South Korea and England

The only difficulties with the course, Mr Christian said, is the unfamiliarity and the fact that it doesn't easily slot into existing school curriculums.

But after teaching it for 25 years, travelling the world to share his idea and even hosting a TED Talk on Big History - as well as making it a priority to receive feedback from schools, teachers and students - Mr Christian is confident that the course is not only coherent, but enjoyable for both teachers and students.

'Each year we have a lot of feedback from schools and we have revised it, so we are very confident that it actually works in the schools,' he said.

'The feedback: most of it has been very good indeed. Students I think are just very excited to be doing a course that allows them to ask very big questions and to see the connections between different disciplines.'

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David Christian's big idea attracted BILL GATES and is leading to a global history education revolution